From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Nov 24 11:44:15 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D543216A403 for ; Fri, 24 Nov 2006 11:44:15 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from cptsalek@gmail.com) Received: from wx-out-0506.google.com (wx-out-0506.google.com [66.249.82.225]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 69D7643D49 for ; Fri, 24 Nov 2006 11:43:33 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from cptsalek@gmail.com) Received: by wx-out-0506.google.com with SMTP id s18so767381wxc for ; Fri, 24 Nov 2006 03:44:13 -0800 (PST) DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=beta; d=gmail.com; h=received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references; b=VbqU0aIgeL9rZKUs2qXTYL6Mf/PYAx64FVfMTrTi0weBxdUvdx+Cgjk1JLKEcuTYnPRfyxkMWO0E0vWFmQqwyVtvAwsXn7KWS5Nh/RhKkT4FbxYMPkjrEEhiciLF6cyO9Wejbxy3Hfi0cGEYOcniqimMD6lXH+3nQS5J8AsBoYY= Received: by 10.70.99.9 with SMTP id w9mr619037wxb.1164368653735; Fri, 24 Nov 2006 03:44:13 -0800 (PST) Received: by 10.70.14.20 with HTTP; Fri, 24 Nov 2006 03:44:13 -0800 (PST) Message-ID: <14989d6e0611240344k3765e483iec8d01c5fafd6626@mail.gmail.com> Date: Fri, 24 Nov 2006 12:44:13 +0100 From: "Christian Walther" To: "perryh@pluto.rain.com" In-Reply-To: <4566b322./iYxBMPvlyC5aoZQ%perryh@pluto.rain.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline References: <14989d6e0611232356h12d8f85bwabc785b0e2909e35@mail.gmail.com> <4566b322./iYxBMPvlyC5aoZQ%perryh@pluto.rain.com> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Knowing if someone really stole someone else's code X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 24 Nov 2006 11:44:15 -0000 Okay, sorry for the misunderstanding. I got the point now. Are there any lawyers on this list? ;-) I don't know if there is a good answer in general to these questions. I remember that there have been several law suits and allegations against several software developers in the past. These where mainly about companies violating the GPL (e.g. using open source code in their own products without giving credits). AFAIK during the trial discussiona where held if the accused used techniques like reverse engineering to get a usable source code. During the trial, the binary code might be analysed and compared between both products in question. The use of a decompiler might even produce source code that can be compared with the code in question, to figure out if they are identical enough to be from one source. To answer your questions: Yes, I'm pretty sure that the court would ask you to show your own source code. Showing the "wrong" source is in my opinion not an option, because different source generates different binary code, so it'll be pretty obvious. So nobody will do a benchmark, but "experts" will look at the code you provided, and probably figure if it's the wrong one or even where it comes from. Generally, source code will generate the corresponding binary code, so if in doubt, you can compile it, and compare it with the binary code in question. Maybe you'll find some interesting bits on http://gpl-violations.org Yes, its focus is on the GPL, but the people behind this website (and a variety of law suits) use reverse engineering and decompilation to figure out if the GPL has been violated. To make matters worse I think it makes a difference where the claim has been made/the law suit has been filed. HTH Christian